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Plastic was invented towards the late 19th century, although the production only started around half of the 20th century. Due to its exponential growth, nowadays, there is an amount of 9.2 billion tons worldwide. This would not be a problem, if only there would be a proper way to gather it after usage. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, nine million tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year, through the river flow. However, how is it possible to coexist with nature and, at the same time, being regardless of its future and for its species? As the curator of the XXII Triennale of Milan Paola Antonelli says, designers have “have the ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, and to convert them into objects and ideas that people can understand and use”. The project aims to introduce the problem on an architectural scale, applying the solutions adopted by more industrialized countries in an underdeveloped environment. The intention is to clean up the water of one of the most polluted delta rivers, the Mekong Delta. Since the river is the primary water source for the ocean, this is the perfect site for this purpose. The water entering the filtration system will be thoroughly cleaned up of its waste and garbage, which will be collected, and used as recycled material. Moreover, through biological processes, water will be purified, and only after this procedure, all the clean water returns in the flow of the Mekong. In my proposal, I focused on designing a building, which has a clear environmental strategy. Starting from the complexity of its surroundings’ nature, I created a structure with a filter function. By combining the traditional bamboo architecture of Vietnam and the newly collected constructing material, plastic, more complexity and filigree are added to the site. As a result, the combination and the coexistence on one hand of a natural material as bamboo and on the other plastics allows the integration of a, BSc Giulia Romanin, Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2020

Plastic was invented towards the late 19th century, although the production only started around half of the 20th century. Due to its exponential growth, nowadays, there is an amount of 9.2 billion tons worldwide. This would not be a problem, if only there would be a proper way to gather it after usage. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, nine million tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year, through the river flow. However, how is it possible to coexist with nature and, at the same time, being regardless of its future and for its species? As the curator of the XXII Triennale of Milan Paola Antonelli says, designers have “have the ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, and to convert them into objects and ideas that people can understand and use”. The project aims to introduce the problem on an architectural scale, applying the solutions adopted by more industrialized countries in an underdeveloped environment. The intention is to clean up the water of one of the most polluted delta rivers, the Mekong Delta. Since the river is the primary water source for the ocean, this is the perfect site for this purpose. The water entering the filtration system will be thoroughly cleaned up of its waste and garbage, which will be collected, and used as recycled material. Moreover, through biological processes, water will be purified, and only after this procedure, all the clean water returns in the flow of the Mekong. In my proposal, I focused on designing a building, which has a clear environmental strategy. Starting from the complexity of its surroundings’ nature, I created a structure with a filter function. By combining the traditional bamboo architecture of Vietnam and the newly collected constructing material, plastic, more complexity and filigree are added to the site. As a result, the combination and the coexistence on one hand of a natural material as bamboo and on the other plastics allows the integration of a, BSc Giulia Romanin, Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2020